Topic: Not sure if this is glass or porcelain

[sdelzer71]

Heres a beautiful (I believe) candle holder? It almost looks like painted glass since it is semi opaque , but again could be porcelain. There are no markings on the base.

[Lustrousstone]

It looks like Burmese glass, perhaps Webb. Shine a UV light on it

[Paul S.]

if it's possible to disconnect the metal parts, then where there are holes/cuts you should be able to determine which it is.             
The flowers/leaves do look to have been painted on, but the pink and yellow appear to be within the material.
Think it would need to be quite thin porcelain to be translucent.

[Ohio]

Tough call between Webb Burmese or Mt. Washington shiny Burmese with Smith Bros. decoration.

[chopin-liszt]

Looks like glass to me.
It's a very unusual and rather wonderful piece. 

[sdelzer71]

Thanks everyone for the great input. Unfortunately cannot take the brass fittings off to see if it is glass or porcelain. I have added some pictures of it lit up with a flashlight . Maybe this will help. It does look like glass with painted on leaves or vines?

[chopin-liszt]

It IS glass.
Those that know about this sort of lovely old stuff currently cannot decide if it was made in America (Mount Washington) or in the UK (Webb's). Both are very highly regarded makers.
Burmese is the name given by Webb to this combination of colours, which is produced by heating the glass a second time - it's called heat-striking.

It is probably radioactive (very mild stuff, nothing to worry about and it's all trapped in the glass) .

If you turn an ultra violet light on it, it should glow very bright limey green.

But your piece seems to have ribs of colour - that would be a very difficult thing to produce with heat-striking - normally it's a graduation of colour from base to rim.

Over to those that actually know something about these makers!

[Lustrousstone]

Ribbing is entirely possible. http://lustrousstone.co.uk/cpg/displayimage.php?pid=990

[Ohio]

Actually Mt. Washington named Burmese first as Frederick Shirley obtained the patent in 1885 for Mt. Washington's formula in the U.S. & Mt. Washington gave permission to Thomas Webb & Sons to produce Burmese in England in 1886 who in turn used the Mt. Washington name Burmese. 

Personally I am more inclined toward Webb than Mt. Washington as I cannot locate any shape(s) even close to this from Sisk while the Webb shape(s) illustrated are far more free flowing.

[Ohio]

Should have added that while I am at it here is a comparison of a very good Murano Mt. Washington Burmese copy compared with an original Mt. Washington Burmese vase. The original in the middle one. Now not everyone carries a blacklight around & frankly most pocket model are close to useless so the most important factor is a reaction of the Uranium Oxide in real Burmese to a blacklight. To the best of my knowledge not a single example of a Murano copy (and there are tons of them around at least here in the U.S.) has ever been found to react to a blacklight. What a Murano copy will react to is a very bright light (as in a high intensity camera flash) & while not visible in any type of normal light a bright closeup flash will show a single faint white streak (not unlike a lightning bolt)  appearing.

Mentally picture a John Doe at a glass show or mall & he spots what appears to be a nice piece of Burmese complete with an intact original Mt. Washington label (and yes these were labeled) on the bottom but unfortunately a blacklight is nowhere to be found so he takes a leap of faith & gets burned at the stake. Now if only he had taken the piece to any lamp in the show or mall with a 100W bulb & placed it within an inch of the naked bulb while slowly rotating the piece to see if the magical white lightening appeared....